06/02/2025
Bee-lieve in yourself! π π .β’Β°β‘Β°β’.β’Β°βΒ°β’.β’
If it wasn't for the fact that I believe that I am meant to do something great, I wouldn't be back at it trying to replant the seed and start all over. π±
2 years ago I was scammed in an elaborate wedding scam, which seems obvious now when I talk about it but at the time, my business was just starting to take off, I was excited, and didn't see it coming. This person asked me to take over a wedding they were planning for a lady who lived in Vernon a nearby city, who was away in the military until just 2 weeks before the wedding date (things that seemed believeable for the area as they have a military camp in Vernon) The wedding planner told me they had to leave the country because their father was on their death bed in a foreign country. They said they would have all the people involved email me, the dj, caterer, etc. All had different emails but I didn't notice how generic they were at the time.
I went back and forth with this apparent wedding planner for a couple months, they were grooming me and they were good at it. I thought I knew about all the scams, I felt so dumb when it finally clicked. Things did seem fishy and I tried to pull out a couple times but they sent voice messages asking me to please keep helping them, pulling at my heart strings.
I was emailed a bogus check.. which was the first stupid thing I should of caught onto because you can't just email a check to someone... πΆβπ«οΈ I cashed a fake check and ended up being out about 800 bucks before I caught on. The caterer need to be paid upfront! So I had to get this check cashed and pay this caterer, I sent it to an account that was under a name of a deceased woman.. named Mary fricken Cheeseman.. like how stupid could I be? It was enough to give me cold feet and decided to go work for someone else doing what I enjoyed with less financial risk. π Although most of my paycheck went to my sitter.
I'm sharing this because honestly I want to warn other business owners who may be naive to the scams that are out there. It left me feeling dumb and vulnerable and if I can help save someone the heartache I went through, Im happy to share my experience.
My advice is to always meet in person or over video chat, if you get your leads on social media, do not make any deals until you have shaken hands in person or at least done a thorough scope of their account and spoken face to face, somehow. Do your research, always.
There's alot more to this story but that's the jist of what happened and why my page has changed so much over the last few years.
So, if you wonder why my page is all over the place, that's why.. I tried going back to planning music events and it wasn't good for me and my family for many reasons that I won't get into here, but if you follow my personal page, you'll know why. I fell back on graphic design for a while and I still enjoy it but parties are my passion! I just want to make cool stuff, create amazing memories for families and friends. Live and learn the hard way, that what I do. So learn from my mistakes, k? lol. π
I learned a lot from this experience and I also learned a lot while I was working at The Tickle Trunk. I feel more confident in my knowledge about balloons, colors and putting together things with higher standards.
Looking forward to my bizzness taking flight again, it's a slow start but I know it will pick up if I just keep at it.
Bee safe friends.